ABSTRACT

The 'visible' aspects of Sino-Indian interaction and relations necessarily constitute the primary touchstones of assessing China's intentions, motives and policies towards India. Perceptions arising out of these realities are of enormous significance in a democracy like India and may well become more significant drivers of the relationship than the viewpoints of policy makers and academics. The motivations for China's approach to its relations with South Asian countries, which constitute India's immediate neighbourhood, are unique and have been very different to those governing China's policies towards all other regions. China never had a claim on or relating to Sikkim and no country in the world had a dispute with India regarding Sikkim but China had made it into a bilateral problem by the mid 1970s and by discussing it for decades, India gave China a say in the matter.